Contrary
to environmentalist talking points, we
know that by conservative estimates, the United States enjoys three
times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Additionally, we have enough
natural gas reserves to last nearly a century. Let that sink in.

Developing
these
resources could create nearly a million jobs and pump revenue
into a desperately deflated economy. Imagine an America no longer
forced to rely for our key energy supplies upon those who would just as
soon see us dead. If President Obama and the alarmist green
lobby would simply get out of the way, we even might use our wealth of
resources as a bridge to cleaner, renewable energy sources, creating
jobs and boosting the economy along the way. Everyone wins.

Consider
that according to the U.S.
Department of Energy,
there are as many as 1.8 trillion recoverable barrels of oil in the
Green River Formation in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming alone. This is in
the form of oil shale - organic-rich rock from which oil and gas can be
extracted. A more conservative estimate by the Rand Corp.
puts it at 800 billion barrels. To put this in perspective, the United
States has 75 percent of the world’s oil shale, and those 800 billion
barrels represent more than three times the proven reserves of Saudi
Arabia.

The Rand
study, conducted in 2005, predates recent
advances in shale-oil extraction, including horizontal drilling and
hydraulic fracturing (fracking). These are revolutionizing oil and gas
production.

Timing is Everything

Environmentalist
naysayers simply have it wrong. It
won’t take decades to tap this oil. In fact, we can produce enough oil
to free ourselves entirely from foreign oil imports in the next 10
years. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
supplies more than a third of our oil. Why? We have all we need and
more. Yet Mr. Obama fatalistically projects that via a
combination of natural gas use and oil drilling, we can only reduce our
foreign oil imports by one-third by 2025. In reality, we can reduce
them by half in just five years.

Still,
in his trademark fashion, this president says one thing and does
another. He has aggressively rescinded policies enacted by his
predecessor to encourage drilling, making it extremely difficult for
independent companies to get leases on federal lands, where roughly 65
percent of this oil lies. This means fewer jobs, greater foreign fuel
dependency and a weaker economy.

Here’s
the problem: Most of this natural gas is accessible only via fracking.
In Colorado, for example, 90 percent of gas wells require fracking. The
technique, which occurs thousands of feet below ground, involves
pumping a solution of water, sand and .5 percent lubricating chemicals
at high pressure to create cracks in the rock that will allow oil and
gas to flow out and be collected.

American Greenie Marxists are
Anti-Frack

Yet,
where free-market
innovation and progress occur, Berkeley-type liberals are sure to
tread. A huge anti-fracking lobby has emerged, asserting - against all
the evidence - that fracking is harmful to the environment (mustn’t
disturb the Sugarloaf tree).The lobby’s primary claim is that
fracking contaminates groundwater - a claim refuted by Mr. Obama’s own
head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, who recently
admitted, “I am not aware of any proven case where the fracking process
has affected water.”

Yet the
anti-frackers demand that this
clean, safe technology be banned or at least regulated into
nonviability. When greenie activists say “jump,” Mr. Obama asks “how
high?” His administration’s regulatory heavy-handedness has rendered 90
percent of this natural gas and oil inaccessible.

According
to studies by Penn
State and the energy consultant Wood
Mackenzie,
if the president would back-off the frack-off and allow those who
actually produce something to use these fantastic new oil and gas
technologies, more than 800,000 new jobs would materialize quickly.

Imagine
an immediate need for natural gas vehicles and new natural gas power
plants. Someone has to build them. Every drilling project stimulates
the local economy as landmen, roughnecks and drilling crews fill hotels
and restaurants and shop locally with their honorably earned
greenbacks. According to an ICF International
study,
the industry could produce nearly $2 trillion in government revenue as
well through lease payments, royalties and taxes. Billions more would
stay here at home that would otherwise go overseas to OPEC and other
foreign oil interests.

Over the
years, the left has
successfully seeded major misconceptions about the “Big Oil” boogeyman.
The fact is that hundreds of small, independent oil companies help
supply the country with energy. They pump millions into the economy
through private and government leases and royalty payments. They employ
hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Economist
Peter Ferrara, writing recently in Forbes magazine, observed,
“While
[Ronald] Reagan used to say that his energy policy was to
‘unleash the private sector,’ Obama’s energy policy can be described as
precisely to leash the private sector in service to [his]
central planning ‘green energy’ dictates.”

Mr.
Obama, tear down this leash. Who knows - Brazil and Saudi Arabia might
actually become two of our “best customers.”